Road Trip Recharged Batteries
We missed doing last week’s review column, and a few days of updating the
Daily Labor News Digest, because we were on the road. I was
invited to observe the
founding convention of Youth for
Socialist Action (YSA), held in Minneapolis. I’m glad I was able to make it.

Largely based
in the Upper Midwest, this serious group of college and high school students,
and young workers, mostly from working class or family farm backgrounds, came
together to address the war, the environmental crisis, sexism, racism, and the
other great questions not being answered by the boss parties.

It was
refreshing and inspiring to again see young people beginning to mobilize around
working class principles. Our unions–and the Labor Party–need to do much more to
reach out to such youth who represent our future. We wish the YSA all the best.

KC Conference Getting Wide Response
Activists from California, Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois have
confirmed they will be attending
The
Future Of American Labor conference in Kansas City April 22-23.
If you haven’t yet registered please do so now to assist the planners in their
preparations.

Heartland Labor Forum Now On Internet Radio
The Heartland Labor Forum,
a Thursday evening fixture on KKFI for more than a decade, is now being
re-broadcast on the Internet through Radio Labourstart.

A May Day Program We Can All Agree On
The Kansas City Labor Party expects there will be enthusiastic
unity around the core program of its May Day celebration–brats (or veg
alternative), beans, and beverage. It’s a picnic to mark the traditional worker
holiday that is a big event in most parts of the world but long neglected in the
USA. Check out the details by clicking here.

Iraq’s Hungry Kids
While we celebrate with a picnic we will also rededicate ourselves to solidarity
with fellow workers around the world who don’t get enough to eat. One group that
we should take special notice of is the children of Iraq. Jean Ziegler, the U.N.
Human Rights Commission's special expert on the right to food, recently reported
that serious, chronic malnutrition among those under the age of five has nearly
doubled during the U.S. occupation. Of course the main reason for high
pre-invasion levels of hunger was the UN sanctions against Iraq enforced by Bush
I, Clinton, and Bush II. Another reason for redoubling efforts against this war.

Can USLAW Regroup, Restart the Antiwar
Movement?
In our last column we commented on the sad state of affairs in the U.S. movement
against the Iraq war. The movement has been plagued with sectarian divisions and
has retreated from a mass action perspective. Recently the Leadership Council of
US Labor Against the War unanimously approved signing on to a
call for a mass national demonstration this Fall and will attempt to jump-start
a unity committee to build the action. This decision was in response to appeals
by the Ohio State Labor Party and the Northeast Ohio Anti-War Coalition, along
the line of an earlier statement by the Ohio LP.

An Unhealthy Situation In Missouri
Despite strong protests from labor and health care advocates the Missouri
General Assembly has finalized draconian cuts in Medicaid expected to totally
eliminate this safety net for 100,000, and sharply raise out-of-pocket expenses
for those still covered. The majority of those affected are children, elderly,
or disabled.

Community
health care clinics and emergency paramedic services, facing elimination as a
result of budget shifts by City Hall, were saved from extinction only by voter
approval of a dedicated 22-cent levy on Kansas City property taxes.

A new state
worker comp law going in to effect in August will eliminate repetitive motion
and most other incremental injury and disease claims.